Brussels, 15/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have highlighted the need for stronger economic government at the level of EU heads of state and government. A few days before the European Council, the two agreed not to call for new institutions, thus rejecting any formalisation of the regular meetings of euro area leaders.
“We need enhanced economic government, stronger that what we have today, and, in my view, this economic government has to be the 27 heads of state and government,” said Merkel following their working dinner in Berlin on Monday 14 June. Were heads of state and government to have to meet, it would be “in cases of necessity”, as has happened in the past, she went on to say, never having been convinced by the idea of an economic government of the euro area. “The natural area for this economic government is all 27 members, but if there was a problem in the euro area, we would meet as euro area members, and we both agreed that it would be better to lighten the European systems by not putting in place more institutions,” Sarkozy told press. He noted, “I believe that, in so doing, we have each taken a step closer to the other's position”. The idea of penalising negligent states by suspending their right to vote in the EU Council would seem to be another area where the two have come closer, with neither the French nor the Germans ruling out the possibility of changes to the Treaty if that were necessary (an approach that Germany has long argued). (A.B./transl.rt)